Battle School - Battle Basics

[ShuShu62]

The battle engine is a very basic tug of war. Every round lasts 80 seconds with the winning side inching the flag in its direction each round until the flag crosses the finish line and a winner is declared. Nothing that occurs during the 80 seconds between rounds has any impact on combat beyond setting the stage for the next round. The animation during the 80 seconds reflects how the round was resolved but is sometimes misleading.

The winner of each round is the side with the greatest power(?) when the round begins (i.e. clock resets from 1 to 1:20). Each unit has a base strength for attacking and one for defending. The same value is used for the entire combat depending on whether your civilization invaded (attack) or not (defend). The base strength can be enhanced by wonders and the National Militia civic. The enhanced strength is then modified by stance, weather, flanking, MiniGame, Civic (Gladiator) and Knights Templar auction bonuses to derive the power of each unit. The strength bonuses are added and then multipleid by each modifier that applies. For Example, a Spearman with Himeji Castle in fog with a heroic Gladiator stance has a strength of 3 (2+1) and a power of 18 ((2+1) *2*3).

Losses are a function of the total battle strength of both sides, the stance of the defending unit and the enhanced strength of the defending unit. Retreating units are not considered to be ‘on the field’ when calculating power, but they can be hit while retreating. The battle bar moves faster if there are no opposing forces.

Summary
- Victory results from pushing the battle bar all the way to the end in one direction
- The battle bar moves once at the beginning of each round
- The battle bar moves faster each round if there is no opposition
- The battle bar moves in the direction of the side with the greatest power(?) at the start of the round
- Power is a combination of enhanced strength times the total combat modifier for each unit
- Strength can be enhanced by
- Himeji Castle: +1 when defending
- Leonardo Workshop: +1 when invading
- National Militia: +1 when defending
- Combat modifiers are impacted by
- Weather: Doubled
- Stance: Heroic-Doubled, Fortified-Halved
- Flanking: Doubled
- Auction: Doubled
- MiniGame: Bonus value
- Gladiator: Tripled rather than doubled on heroic only.
- Enhanced strength is multiplied by every multiplier (i.e. ES * Weather * Stance * Flank * Minigame)
- Combat losses are based on
- Total power of both sides in battle
- Enhanced strength of the unit taking damage
- Stance (Fortified: Half, Heroic/gladiator: Triple)

[random user]

Unless something really new has happened, Knights Templar gives you double your unit, up to 10, for each slot you are defending in. I believe that you have to be defending your own battle, but I'm not sure about that one.

[robin74]

The winner of each round is the side with the greatest power when the round begins

The battle bar moves in the direction of the side with the greatest power at the start of the round

Not anymore. I think it was changed two or three updates ago. The flag now moves in the direction of the side which actually made the attack in a given round.

[ShuShu62]

Not anymore. I think it was changed two or three updates ago. The flag now moves in the direction of the side which actually made the attack in a given round.

I tested that when you said it before, and found your statement was not true, but that was when they were making lots of changes to the combat system. I will try and recreate your observation to verify it is still true before I change those statements.

[robin74]

I must say that originally, after the changes (with the old garrison and battle starting right away after the vote system), the flag behavior seemed quite random and erratic to me.
Right now in the battles I'm in it seems to be consistently moving in the direction of the attacking team. It's certainly not the old more-strength thing anymore.

[ShuShu62]

I confirmed your observation tonight. I will unpink the changes in a day or two.

[HandEyeProtege]

Another simple question that I haven't figured out: what determines how many "pages" of battlefields there are? Is it civ size? Era?

[dart27]

Another simple question that I haven't figured out: what determines how many "pages" of battlefields there are? Is it civ size? Era?

Battlefield size (pages) is based on the defending civ's size. I'm not sure of the exact counts, but small civ gets 1 page, med civ gets 2 pages, and large civ gets 3 pages. For instance large civ attacks small civ the battle will have 1 page. Conversely when a small civ attacks big civ the battle has 3 pages.